Hungary risks losing NATO funding over delayed radar station

bbj.hu

Monday, December 4, 2006, 13:26

Hungary could lose about Ft 18 billion ($96 million) in funding from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to complete a nationwide radar system as protests by environmentalists stall construction of a final hub.

“Hungary should sort this out as soon as possible,” NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said in a December 1 phone interview. “If there is a problem is Hungary, it has to be solved in Hungary. This is not a project that has big alternatives.” The country's decision to build three military radars in 1999, the year it joined NATO, meant Hungary could get the organization to foot up to 80% of the bill to replace outdated equipment.

While NATO paid a combined Ft 36 billion for the first two stations in the northeast and southeast, plans to complete the system by September this year were met with protests by environmentalists over the location of a third station. “If we can't find a location, we may lose the funding and will have to pay for it ourselves,” Defense Ministry spokesman Dezső Kiss said in a phone interview November 30. The proposed site for the third radar, on a peak in southern Hungary called the Tubes, is the second location under attack by locals because of its possible impact on environment and wildlife.

The original location, on a nearby peak called Zengő, was abandoned because of protests by environmentalists including Hungarian President László Sólyom, who, as a private citizen, joined a march on Zengő last year. Sólyom has since approved the Tubes location. The Tubes is being reviewed to ensure it meets “military requirements,” and that the plan “harmonizes environment protection and safety interests,” Kiss said. Hungary will decide on Tubes early next year and the new system is expected to be operating in early 2008, Kiss said. (Bloomberg)

Related articles

While the CEE market is a late adapter of zero carbon technologies, it presents opportunities for market expansion via innovative, cost-effective technologies, offering positive public health, quality of life, economic prosperity, and climate outcomes, says a report by the Prince of Walesʼs Corporate Leaders Group (CLG).

The Central European University (CEU), while welcoming a Bavarian offer of financial and technical support for a long-term partnership with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), says that it needs legal guarantees from the Hungarian government if the solution is to work.

E-tail company Extreme Digital is set to merge with eMAGʼs Hungarian subsidiary to form one of the largest players on the CEE e-commerce market, according to an announcement by Extreme Digital at a press conference attended by the Budapest Business Journal on Thursday.

Startup Safari, the annual festival introducing the world of startups in a real working environment with the proactive involvement of the audience, returns to Budapest on April 17-19 this year, and the Budapest Business Journal is offering no less than 30 free tickets for the event.

The management board of the International Investment Bank (IIB), which recently announced it will move its headquarters from Moscow to Budapest later this year, has released a statement denying what it says are “unfounded” media accusations of close ties to the Russian secret service and the Russian state itself.

Wabererʼs International Nyrt. reported an after-tax loss of EUR 20.9 million in 2018, compared to after-tax profit of EUR 18.4 mln in 2017. In an earnings report issued late Tuesday, the new CEO outlined steps to reduce loss-making and make cost cuts.

The Government Debt Management Agency (ÁKK) sold HUF 40 billion of bonds maturing in 2026 and 2028 at a switch auction on Wednesday, accepting bonds expiring in 2020 as payment, state news wire MTI reported.

Hungaryʼs governing populist party Fidesz has been suspended by the center-right European Peopleʼs Party (EPP), the biggest political grouping in the European Parliament, after a vote triggered by what many member parties see as Fideszʼs defiance of EU policies and EPP values, according to breaking reports Wednesday evening.